Updates in Viljandi shooting: Teacher to be remembered, suspect lands in hospital ({{commentsTotal}})

Viljandi will remember one of its best teachers today in a prayer service at St. Paul's Church at 17:00.

Ene Sarap, the teacher of German who was killed on Monday afternoon in a school shooting, was the county's teacher of the year in 2007.

In reminiscences published in dailies, former students remembered her as fairly strict, about average for Estonia, but warm and kind, remembering students for years after they graduated and showing a sincere interest in their lives.

School was in session on Tuesday at Paalalinna School. The four other students who were in the classroom at the time that a 15-year-old student allegedly opened fire at Sarap with a revolver did not attend classes, however, but they did come in earlier for counselling.

With eyewitnesses and many others still in a state of shock, Tuesday brought no additional information on why there were only five students, including the alleged shooter, in the classroom, and what the nature of the confrontation, if any, was.

The alleged shooter, who surrendered without resistance after firing multiple rounds, was taken to the hospital on Tuesday for unspecified health problems, postponing initial questioning. When pressed as to the possibility that the boy had made a suicide attempt, lead prosecutors said only that the boy had no physical injuries.

According to police sources, the revolver used was a legal weapon kept by the boy's father in a locked compartment. It is not known how or when the boy came into possession of the weapon.

Media reports about the family situation have varied. Initial accounts characterized the family, which has four children, as championing education, culture and civic participation; the son, who shares a name with his father, was described as bright but withdrawn.

Later they became mixed with descriptions of a gun-loving father with a short fuse. TV3 reported, for instance, that 15 years ago the father had allegedly brought a firearm to work and "waved it around."

Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDE) and former minister of health and labour, Jevgeni Ossinovski expects poverty in Estonia to decrease as an effect of the current government's income tax reform, though the actual impact will become clear only after data is evaluated next year.